Saturday, December 31, 2016

General Flynn's Book Offers Glimpses Of Priorities For The Incoming Trump Administration


Daniel Runde, forbes.com

uncaptioned image from article
Excerpt:
General Michael Flynn and Dr. Michael Ledeen recently published a book, Field of Fight: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and its Allies. General Flynn, a former 3-Star General and former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, has a number of critics in the National Security community and the negative views of his critics impacted the reception of the book. He also has a number of admirers: his counsel was sought after by a number of 2016 GOP Presidential candidates. The book should be read carefully given his role as the incoming National Security Adviser to President-elect Trump.
General Flynn and Dr. Ledeen (who blogs at forbes.com) wrote the book for 2 reasons: 1) “to show the war being waged against us” and 2) “to lay out at winning strategy.” The ideas in this book fall well within a conservative internationalist tradition. The authors call for: a multi-decade Long War against terrorism, the use of all forms of national power including economic assistance and public diplomacy, confronting the “root causes” of terrorism, and working closely with partners and allies. ...
The authors remind us that the US vigorously sustained decades of ideological confrontation with Communism and Fascism and that our then adversaries also believe that they were historically destined to win. There were energetic (what we would now call) public diplomacy efforts and psychological warfare efforts to undermine and weaken the potency of these ideologies. “When most people talk about ‘war,’ they think of tanks …But at least as important, people need to recognize the strategic power of words and pictures….Ideas, and the words that express them, are very much a part of war, but we have deliberately deprived ourselves of using them.” Part of this war of ideas should (correctly) expose the connections among jihadists, drug dealers, money launderers and human traffickers to discredit the bad guys who purport to be “morally superior” to the West. ...

Chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors: Who Is Richard Stengel?


allgov.com

Richard Stengel (photo: Andy Kropa, Getty Images)
Richard Stengel, who had a long career at Time magazine before joining the Obama administration, was nominated on November 28, 2016, to serve as chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
Stengel is from New York City. He went to Princeton University, where he played on the basketball team, including on the winning squad in the 1975 National Invitation Tournament. He graduated in 1977 and went on to study English and history at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.
Stengel began at Time in 1981, initially writing for them as well as for other publications such as The New Yorker and Rolling Stone. He covered the 1988 presidential campaign for Time. In 1990, he came out with the book “January Sun: One Day, Three Lives, A South African Town,” which covered the period just before apartheid ended. The book caught the notice of Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress, and Stengel was retained to ghostwrite Mandela’s autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom.” Stengel subsequently wrote “Mandela’s Way: Fifteen Lessons on Life, Love and Courage,” about the time he spent with Mandela, and “You’re Too Kind, A Brief History of Flattery.”
Stengel returned to Time, and covered the 1996 presidential race. He left in 1999, when he took a leave of absence from the magazine to write speeches for Sen. Bill Bradley, who was running for president. Stengel had met Bradley when Bradley spoke to one of his classes at Princeton. Stengel also taught journalism classes at his alma mater during this period.
After Bradley’s campaign ended in 2000, Stengel went back to Time to lead Time.com. He subsequently served as culture editor and nation editor. Stengel stayed at the magazine four years before leaving again, this time to become president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a museum in Philadelphia.
However, that lasted only two years before being named in 2006 as Time’s managing editor. The magazine was at somewhat of a crossroads, dealing like most print publications with declining circulation. Stengel revamped the magazine, putting more focus on analysis and hard news. He even changed Time’s publication day to Friday, giving the magazine to subscribers for their weekend reading. Lowlights of his tenure included many layoffs and criticism for Time’s choice as 2006 Person of the Year: You.
Stengel left Time in 2013 and the following year joined the State Department as Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. Among other parts of his job, he was tasked with countering ISIS’ message. Stengel remained in that job until he was nominated for the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
If Stengel is confirmed by the Senate, he probably shouldn’t get too comfortable. His term expires August 13, 2017.
Stengel is married to Mary Pfaff, whom he met while in South Africa working with Mandela. They have two sons, Anton, and Gabriel, who is Mandela’s godson.
-Steve Straehley
To Learn More:
The Time of Their Lives (by Joe Hagen, New York)
Richard Stengel Is Chosen to Be Top Editor at Time (by Katharine Q. Seelye, New York Times)
Q&A: Richard Stengel ’77 on Nelson Mandela (by Louis Jacobson, Princeton Alumni Weekly)
Biography (Wikipedia)

Thursday, December 29, 2016

Public Diplomacy-related articles (12/29/2016 - 12/18/2016) posted for the record


image from

Links to articles judged most important by your compiler re PD, as pertains mostly to U.S. PD (in reverse chronological order, 12/29/2016-12/18/2016); see below for more PD-related articles cited in Google Search, 12/29/2016-12/18/2016

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13)

NB: Perhaps the most important among the above are:

Saturday, December 24, 2016


Farewell, Farewell, Firewall by Kim Andrew Elliott


via LJB by email

image from article

DEC 21, 2016 BY KIM ANDREW ELLIOTT http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/blog/farewell-firewall

Deep in the massive FY2017 National Defense Authorization Act is a provision to eliminate, in its present form, the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors. The NDAA has been passed by the House and the Senate and is expected to be signed by President Obama. The BBG is the topmost authority of the elements of U.S. government-funded international broadcasting: Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Radio and TV Martí, and the Arabic-language Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa. Together they broadcast in 61 languages.
This BBG’s demise eliminates the “firewall” of a nine-person bipartisan board with fixed and staggered terms, and replaces it with one politically-appointed CEO. This change will have consequences.
Traditionally, people around the world huddled around a shortwave radio to get news from abroad. Increasingly, they watch an international news channel via cable or satellite television, or access a foreign website or social media outlet. Whatever the medium used, the need for a credible alternative to domestic state-controlled media is the main reason international broadcasting has had an audience since the 1930s.
Credibility is the essence of successful international broadcasting. The shortwave frequencies, satellite channels, and online media are full of propaganda, but serious news consumers seek out the news organizations that they trust.
International broadcasting in languages such as Burmese or Hausa has little commercial potential. National governments must step in to provide the funding. The foremost challenge is to ensure that the journalism is independent from the governments that hold the purse strings. 
To achieve this, there is no substitute for a multipartisan governing board. Its main function is to appoint the senior managers of the broadcasting organization, so that politicians don’t. This is how “public service” broadcasting corporations throughout the world, e.g. BBC, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, maintain their independence.
When a government is directly involved in the production of news, the results are generally deleterious. The outcome can be as extreme as the lies and distortions of German broadcasts before and during World War II. Or the output can be something like the stultifying commentaries that filled much of Radio Moscow’s schedule during the Cold War. And, as can be observed by watching Russia’s RT or China’s CCTV News on cable TV, propaganda can also be manifest by emphasizing some topics, while downplaying or ignoring others.
I believe I had a role in the creation of the BBG 21 years ago. As an audience research analyst at VOA and a student of international broadcasting, I was concerned about the impact of politically appointed VOA directors on the VOA news service. I wrote about this in “Too Many Voices of America,” Foreign Policy, Winter 1989-90.
I was pleasantly surprised that the article sparked lively discussion. A House of Representatives hearing on the subject took place in 1990. Then a President’s Task Force on U.S. Government International Broadcasting was formed in 1991 and issued a report. This process culminated in the International Broadcasting Act of 1994, which created the BBG. The BBG began its work in 1995.
So, if I was not the father of the BBG, I was at least its crazy uncle.
For the most part, the BBG functioned well as a firewall. Most importantly, directors of VOA and presidents of RFE/RL were no longer appointed by the president, but by the BBG. When a new president was elected, those directors and presidents and their senior managers stayed on. There was no jarring change of the news agenda that the audiences for international broadcasting would notice.

Only an independent news organization can build the credibility needed to attract an audience. Audiences that seek out international broadcasting are seeking an antidote to the state-controlled media in their own countries. More state-controlled media is not the answer.

Nevertheless, among the employees of U.S. government international broadcasting, few tears will be shed for the passing of the BBG. The BBG had to make unpopular but necessary decisions. Veteran personnel with radio skills had to make room for new television and online talent. Language services of the Cold War era signed off while others, especially those serving Muslim nations, rose in priority. 
With the new one-person oversight of U.S. international broadcasting, the pendulum that vexed VOA and the other entities before the 1990s begins to swing again. In the old days, some VOA directors were committed journalists, others were policy hawks. The latter imposed priorities on news output which conformed more to the administration’s agenda than to the tenets of journalism. This will eventually happen again with a presidentially appointed CEO.
The revision of the International Broadcasting Act does stipulate a three-year term for the CEO, so that, in theory, provides something of a buffer. There could be short-lived continuity when a new president is elected. When that term expires, a future president could, hypothetically speaking, have an unusual level of interest in the mass media, and might appoint a CEO with a peculiar notion of news.
The legislation also retains standards of journalism, e.g. the news “will be accurate, objective, and comprehensive.” The CEO, however, can interpret what is meant by that. There is no longer the moderating influence of a bipartisan board.
Why should the U.S. government fund a news organization if it cannot influence its content?
1) Only an independent news organization can build the credibility needed to attract an audience. Audiences that seek out international broadcasting are seeking an antidote to the state-controlled media in their own countries. More state-controlled media is not the answer.
2)  Independence enables the balance that builds trust in a news organization. VOA began broadcasting in 1942 with the famous words, “The news may be good or bad, we shall tell you the truth.” To radio listeners in Europe, VOA and BBC reported the many Allied losses early in the war. They were therefore believed when reporting Allied victories later in the war.
3) Well and fully informed audiences are bolstered against disinformation, information, and what we now call the fake news of dictators and terrorists and other international miscreants. These audiences are better equipped to form their own opinions about current events.
4) An unfettered news service supports U.S. interests in the long term. If U.S. policies are wise and virtuous, fully informed audiences, will, in the long term, understand the reasoning behind U.S. international conduct.
5) It speaks well of the United States that it is providing the news service that many people around the world rely on. It will alienate publics abroad if the United States provides a news-like product that is actually propaganda. 
With the resumption of the swinging pendulum, it is only a matter of time until a future CEO of U.S. international broadcasting cleans house in its newsrooms. The change of tone will be apparent to audiences abroad. Credibility can be lost in a matter of weeks. It will take decades to restore.
KIM ANDREW ELLIOTT
CPD Blog Contributor
Audience Research Analyst, U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau
http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/blog/farewell-firewall
***

Friday, December 23, 2016



Obama signs off on reducing status of Broadcasting Board of Governors


image (not from article) from

bbgwatch.com

BBG Watch Commentary
President Barack Obama has signed into law S. 2943, the “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017,” which includes a provision to reduce the Broadcasting Board of Governors’ (BBG) governing board to an advisory status while making the BBG CEO position subject to a future nomination by the president and vetting and confirmation by the U.S. Senate.
While signing the legislation into law, President Obama expressed reservations about several of the 2017 NDAA provisions dealing with the U.S. Department of Defense. President Obama also had some reservations about the amendment dealing with the BBG, but they are not likely to have any practical effect during the waning days of his presidency. It will be up to Donald Trump and his administration to decide how to implement any reforms at the BBG and whom to put in charge of the agency.
In 2013, Obama’s then Secretary of State and ex officio BBG member Hillary Clinton called the Broadcasting Board of Governors “practically defunct.” This year the BBG, now headed by BBG CEO John Lansing, with Amanda Bennett as the Voice of America director, has dropped even further in its last place in the Partnership for Public Service 2016 “Best Places to Work in the Federal Government” rankings.
Some of the most experienced former and current VOA journalists are complaining about dropping morale, a drastic increase in biased, partisan reporting at the Voice of America, and VOA programs which romanticize ISIS and other terrorists. The program which several highly experienced current and former VOA journalists described as “romanticizing a terrorist,” was, however, publicly praised by VOA director Amanda Bennett.
Many of the critics of BBG management and VOA programs, including the latest VOA program devoted to an ISIS terrorist, are registered Democrats who had voted for Hillary Clinton.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: “My Administration strongly supports the bill’s structural reform of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which streamlines BBG operations and reduces inefficiencies, while retaining the longstanding statutory firewall, protecting against interference with and maintaining the professional independence of the agency’s journalists and broadcasters and thus their credibility as sources of independent news and information. Section 1288 would elevate the current Chief Executive Officer of the Broadcasting Board of Governors to the head of the agency and reduce the current members of the Board, unless on expired terms, from serving as the collective head of the agency to serving as advisors to the Chief Executive Officer. While my Administration supports the empowerment of a Chief Executive Officer with the authority to carry out the BBG’s important functions, the manner of transition prescribed by section 1288 raises constitutional concerns related to my appointments and removal authority. My Administration will devise a plan to treat this provision in a manner that mitigates the constitutional concerns while adhering closely to the Congress’s intent.” [ Emphasis added.]
In February 2016, President Obama delivered a major speech about the ideological threat from ISIL but did not mention the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the federal agency currently in charge of U.S. international media efforts. Bipartisan efforts to reform the BBG were led for several years by the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), and Ranking Democrat, Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY).

SEE: “This Broken Agency is Losing the Info War to ISIS & Putin.”


Current BBG board chairman Jeff Shell, some of the current BBG board members, BBG CEO John Lansing, and VOA director Amanda Bennett strongly disagree that there is anything wrong with the agency’s management. At a recent BBG board meeting, they have all expressed effusive praise for their “excellent” management team, even though BBG and VOA employees consider it the worst in the federal government, according to the most recent 2016 Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS).
The current BBG board brought John Lansing in September 2015 to lead the agency. He is believed to have been recommended to the BBG board by the outgoing BBG chairman Jeff Shell.
Amanda Bennett became VOA director several months later.
Neither of them has prior experience in U.S. government operations or management of U.S. foreign policy and public diplomacy.
Under the previous law governing the Broadcasting Board of Governors, John Lansing’s appointment was not proposed by President Obama and he was not vetted and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

SEE: BBG dead last among mid-size federal agencies in Best Places to Work 2016 Rankings, BBG Watch, December 21, 2016.


Voice of America story romanticizes a terrorist, experienced VOA reporters complain, BBG Watch, December 23, 2016.

BBG chiefs heap praise on executives of a failed agency, BBG Watch, December 1, 2016.

Voice of America Civil Service Employees Satire Trump, Future First Lady, BBG Watch, December 17, 2016.

BBG journalists posting Trump swastika memes afraid VOA might become politicized under his presidency, BBG Watch, December 12, 2016.


###

WHITE HOUSE STATEMENT
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 23, 2016

Statement by the President on Signing the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017
Today, I have signed into law S. 2943, the “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017.”  This Act authorizes fiscal year 2017 appropriations principally for the Department of Defense and for Department of Energy national security programs, provides vital benefits for military personnel and their families, and includes authorities to facilitate ongoing operations around the globe.  It continues many critical authorizations necessary to ensure that we are able to sustain our momentum in countering the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and to reassure our European allies, as well as many new authorizations that, among other things, provide the Departments of Defense and Energy more flexibility in countering cyber-attacks and our adversaries’ use of unmanned aerial vehicles. ...
My Administration strongly supports the bill’s structural reform of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which streamlines BBG operations and reduces inefficiencies, while retaining the longstanding statutory firewall, protecting against interference with and maintaining the professional independence of the agency’s journalists and broadcasters and thus their credibility as sources of independent news and information.  Section 1288 would elevate the current Chief Executive Officer of the Broadcasting Board of Governors to the head of the agency and reduce the current members of the Board, unless on expired terms, from serving as the collective head of the agency to serving as advisors to the Chief Executive Officer.  While my Administration supports the empowerment of a Chief Executive Officer with the authority to carry out the BBG’s important functions, the manner of transition prescribed by section 1288 raises constitutional concerns related to my appointments and removal authority.  My Administration will devise a plan to treat this provision in a manner that mitigates the constitutional concerns while adhering closely to the Congress’s intent. ...
###

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Definition of BBG

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***

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